Ornithocheirus, the pterosaur from where the taxonomic-group got its name.
Ornithocheiroids are a group of pterodactyloid pterosaurs that are commonly portrayed living near water and eating fish. They were among the last of pterosaurs to possess teeth. They may or may not have been around in the latest Cretaceous time period.
Physical traits[]
Ornithocheiroids have limbs specialized for an amphibious lifestyle, whether fresh, salt or brackish water. In some cases, like Pteranodon, they can swim for food, while others probably waded in water, like modern herons do.
Unlike the Azhdarchids, the limbs of ornithocheiroids are not suited for terrestrial life (except for one subgroup called istiodactylids), some ornithocheiroids couldn't even walk.
Many Ornithocheiroids are known from the Cretaceous deposits of North and South America as well Europe. Some have also been found in Asia, and at least one was discovered in Australia.
in the series[]
Walking with Dinosaurs[]
Giant of the Skies[]
Ornithocheirus was a migrating Ornithocheiroid that was the main character in this episode.
There were also smaller pterosaurs resembling Caulkicephalus (which wasn't known at the time), which is also an ornithocheiroid.
Chased by Dinosaurs[]
Land of Giants[]
Ornithocheirus made a cameo appearance in this episode. There is also several Pteranodon in the episode, though Pteranodon didn't live in South America.
Nigel's Pteranodon. (Sea Monsters)
Sea Monsters[]
Sea Monsters, Episode 3[]
A Pteranodon befriends Nigel Marven and his crew in the last half of this episode.
Walking with Dinosaurs: Inside Their World[]
Pteranodon is one of the viewable pterosaurs in the app.
Appearances in other Media[]
Prehistoric Park[]
Read more at the Prehistoric Park Wiki
Nyctosaurus was an Ornithocheiroid, first appearing in the opening sequence, and in a cameo in the first episode (although they weren't identified).
They returned in the last episode, which, strangely, took place 2 million years earlier in their environment than in the first episode. Nigel Marvin flew alongside a flock in an airplane once. One was also caught and eaten by a Deinosuchus right out of the air.
Trivia[]
- Ornithocheirus has been reclassified as Tropeognathus, but both genus are Ornithocheiroids.